[A. E. Stallings]

I don't understand the argument that syllabics are not also written for the ear or that they would not have "sonics". They can have rhyme, internal rhyme, alliteration, assonance, rhythms of all kinds--though they would tend to eschew "regularly" patterned beats, else they are accentual syllabic. All of the poems I have presented here gain by being read aloud.

Yes, Janet, that Plath looks syllabic to me, alternating 8's and 7's. I think Hughes first "assigned" syllabics to her as an exercise--that is how "Mushrooms" got its start. But "Mushrooms" definitely goes beyond mere exercise.

It seem to me also that "composition aid" will be intrinsic to the outcome of the poem if it is really working, not just a gimmick, just as a sonnet form might be a composition aid, but is also something more than that if it is to be mroe than exercise. I would encourage folks to try syllabics--and probably the best way to start is haiku stanzas--to see what I am talking about. And yes, if you like rhyme, rhyme! And they are probably better on the whole for description than, say, narrative (for whatever reason--at least going by "successful" examples). I could even post a couple of my syllabic poems, if you like, and say something about the composition and how, for me, they work.